The present invention relates to locking mechanisms for securing projectiles within projectile storage racks.
The modern war is often a war of logistics where the winner is determined by the ability to efficiently transport men and material. Accordingly, it is essential to optimize the conveyance of ammunition such as projectiles and shells.
For simplicity, "projectiles" as used herein shall be considered to include shells, missiles, torpedos, bombs, and more generally ammunition.
The storage or transportation of projectiles generally requires a balancing between two conflicting considerations. On the one hand, the projectiles should be stored such that it is easy to remove them from their storage mechanism as required for usage of the projectile. On the other hand, the projectiles must be stored such that they will not be jarred loose by nearby explosions or while being transported along a bumpy road. Generally, the more secure a projectile is from accidental dislodgement, the more time consuming it is to remove the projectile from its storage facility.
One common method for transportation and storage of projectiles is by use of a wooden pallet. The pallet is normally configured in two rows of four projectiles. The wooden pallet consists of upper and lower wood laminates held together with steel banding. The bases of the projectiles rest on the lower wood laminate board and the nose protrudes through holes drilled in the top wood laminate board.
The use of wooden pallets is subject to numerous disadvantages. For one thing, the steel banding must be cut or otherwise removed to allow access to all of the projectiles. This in turn necessitates the rebanding of the wooden pallet if the projectiles are to be resecured.
To support self-propelled howitzers in the field, it is necessary to carry ammunition such as 100-200 pound projectiles over rough terrain. The projectiles are carried in horizontal tubes in the self-propelled hawitzers and ammunition resupply vehicles. Safety considerations require that the projectiles be held in the tubes during travel.
Some of the prior art problems with storage and transportation of projectiles have been overcome by the projectile lock assembly disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,528, issued Aug. 17, 1982 to Ayyala Perisastry, Richard A. Vishe, and Peter J. Hoet. The projectile lock assembly disclosed in that patent, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention, uses a rack having a plurality of parallel cylindrical tubes. A number of locking assemblies are mounted along each of the tubes and used for individually locking projectiles within the associated tube.
Although the projectile lock assembly of the Perisastry et al. patent is extremely useful in providing a storage rack for projectiles, it has been subject to several disadvantages. In particular, each projectile must be individally secured within its corresponding storage tube. Depending upon the number of projectiles which need to be secured, this is time consuming. Indeed, if the projectile storage racks were within an ammunition supply vehicle, the vehicle should remain stationary (and thus quite vulnerable) until all of the projectiles were secured.
A disadvantage which is common to numerous prior art designs is their inability to adapt to different length and different diameter projectiles. A further disadvantage with most prior art projectile storage racks is that the projectiles are either locked into position or free to move. Such prior art designs do not have options other then locking the projectile (such that unlocking is likely to be time consuming) or having the projectiles unsecured (such that nearby explosions due to enemy action could cause the projectile to fall out of its rack).
A further disadvantage common among prior art projectile rack assemblies is that the controls used for locking and/or unlocking the projectiles are not very convenient to operate.
Another disadvantage among some prior art designs is the requirement for precision tolerances among numerous small parts such as cams.